Per CNN, during a March of 2005 interview with the late Tim Russert, Brian Williams’ stolen valor lie about a helicopter he was riding in being shot down by an RPG over Iraq hadn’t yet fully evolved into him being in the helicopter.
Although the Nightly News anchor’s Chinook would not arrive until a full hour after the RPG incident, Williams still lied to Russert by suggesting he had witnessed the attack:
March 2005: During an interview on Tim Russert’s CNBC show, Williams says of that day in 2003, “the helicopter in front of us was hit. A pickup truck stopped on the road, pulled a tarp back; a guy got up, fired an RPG, rocket-propelled grenade. These were farmers, or so they seemed. And it beautifully pierced the tail rotor of the Chinook in front of us.” This description suggests that Williams witnessed the attack.
Over time Williams would embellish this lie further. Soon he would place himself on the helicopter under fire and David Letterman would be calling him a “war hero.”
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC